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May 2, 2008
Florida fiasco(es) tossed to the votersIt only meets once every 20 years but after its recent work Florida taxpayers ought to demand that the so-called "Taxation and Budget Reform Commission" never meets again. The 25-member panel of political appointees with the power to place constitutional amendments to a vote of the people has stuck some real doozies on November's ballot.
First, there's the school voucher double feature. The Commission, in a reversal from an earlier vote, approved on its final day an amendment to essentially undo the state Supreme Court ruling in 2006 striking down Florida's flagship voucher program. But in an act of political trickery, the Commission has paired that amendment (possibly violating the Constitution in the process ironically) with the dubious and foolish but oh so sound-bite friendly "65 percent solution"! BoardBuzz has commented on this concept before and even the oft-critical-of-public-schools Fordham Foundation has questioned it.
The second voucher amendment crafted by the Commission would eliminate the state constitution's "no-aid" provision that is supposed to prevent direct or indirect public funding of religion. Should both be approved by the voters, the doors to funding private and religious schools will be wide open.
But the Commission's good work didn't stop there. It also approved an amendment that, if approved, would end the use of property taxes to fund education and attempt to replace lost school revenue (projected to be $8 billion) with the far more volatile state sales tax.
Florida's newspapers weighed in with expected incredulity: Palm Beach Post editorial here, St. Pete Times here, and its columnist Howard Troxler here.
Meantime, Florida's legislature is looking at cutting public school funding this year by $332 million, forcing school districts to have to make decisions like these.
And thinking ahead to November and the presidential election, what might be the collective impact of all these ballot initiatives on voter turnout? Get ready for a rough and tumble summer in the Sunshine State.
Posted May 2, 2008 7:00 AM | Privatization & Choice
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